Election Day Voter Registration in the United States: How One-step Voting Can Change the Composition of the American Electorate
Name
vtp_wp5.pdf
Size
855.86 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
9f187f9be5be542d19a3b9489dfbdd27
Author(s)
Alvarez, R. Michael
Ansolabehere, Stephen
Wilson, Catherine H.
Date Issued
June 2002
Publisher
Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project
Series/Report no.
VTP Working Paper Series;5
Abstract
For most Americans, voting requires two steps. First, an eligible citizen must register in some manner with an appropriate government agency. Second, once registered, the citizen can then cast a ballot on or before election day. The historical record provides examples of voter registration processes as early as 1801 in the state of Massachusetts, followed by Columbia, South Carolina in 1819, the state of Pennsylvania in 1836, and New York City in 1840. After the Civil War, voter registration systems proliferated throughout the nation, especially in large urban areas of the county. By 1929, only Arkansas, Indiana and Texas did not have voter registration systems in place. Today, only North Dakota has no voter registration.
Subjects
Same-day registration
Voter registration
Voter turnout
Eligible voters
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